Kelly in her Tiverton studio preparing for her residency.

Kelly Milukas began as a sculptor and expanded to work in a range of media including watercolor, photography, cast resin, pastel, and encaustic. Many of her projects include a focus on the intersection of creativity and science, such as her nationally exhibited “Keys to the Cures” series. Despite her abiding and deeply-rooted love of science, Kelly’s work is rarely dry. Her story telling and interpretations of abstracted realities are imbued with whimsy and play. Kelly wants her paintings to be experiential, to lead to curiosity, and to invite the viewer look more deeply.

An Artist Instructor for R&F Handmade Paints, former president of the Providence Art Club, and President Emerita of the South Coast Artists Open Studio Tour, Kelly is also a Juried Artist Member of the Salmagundi Art Club, a Masters Circle Pastel Artist of International Association Pastel Societies, and a Signature Member of both the Rhode Island Watercolor Society and the Connecticut Pastel Society. Her artwork can be found in museums, private and corporate collections, such as The Boston Group, Intarcia Therapeutics, and Simpson Healthcare. She has been featured in a number of publications including New England Home, Artscope, Newport Life Magazine, and The Pastel Journal.

Polishing a 32” x 48” encaustic painting before a 2022 solo exhibition at Taste in Newport, RI.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? How did you get your start as an artist?

From as early as I can remember, I made things. At age 9, I taught myself calligraphy, which I’ve stuck with to this day. I loved construction projects with my papa, climbing up on the roof banging nails in my teens, and took multiple semesters of shop class.

I played many instruments growing up, including guitar, flute, oboe, and was in theater and chorus. I learned how to fly planes too. Floating over the aerial views of nature blew me away. Art in all forms has always appealed to me.

I went off to college with a full ride basketball scholarship, a declared major in marine biology and a minor in psychology. I soon discovered that I wasn’t being me, and I transferred from Oklahoma to the University of Southern Maine to major in sculpture.

What are you currently working on in the studio?

I completed a series of fifty small (6” x 8”) paintings for a residency recently. They were all created with the idea of scaling them up to 30” x 40” with encaustic. I frequently use water-based media to make underpaintings and then work on top of that with encaustic.

How has your work evolved over the years?

When I discovered encaustic 12 years ago, it was an epic art material moment. I found I could expand the layered anatomy of my paintings through carving, excavation, inscribing, and embedding, which enabled me to transcend the 2D surface of a painting.

Encaustic really helped me to return to a stronger sculptural voice. I continue to evolve in terms of thinking dimensionally with my work, including with other mediums.

Kelly’s studio in Tiverton. The hot boxes seen in this photo have all been replaced with 16” R&F palettes.

You will be teaching two Color & Composition workshops in your Tiverton, Rhode Island studio in 2024. Tell us a little bit about these workshops.

I will be offering two Color & Composition workshops in collaboration with Dietlind Vander Schaaf. Co-teaching is something that offers students a number of different benefits. They get the experience of being exposed to different perspectives on the elements of painting from two professional painters. It also offers an incredible experience for us as co-instructors in that we learn and respond to each other in real time. I am an experiential learner - I want to create dynamic experiences for students that help to enrich and inform them and that are also fun.

My space in Tiverton was designed to be an encaustic teaching studio. It is 1,200 square feet and supplied with plenty of electricity to support 12 encaustic work stations. I have lots of different media that is compatible for working with encaustic, as well as an incredible library of art books and a kitchenette. It also has a loft for hosting visiting artists.

Our first workshop is a 3 day in January for students who can’t attend the 5 day immersive retreat-style version in July. Both of these workshops are grounded in color. We begin with a day on value - learning to see light and creating tools to help see it. This allows us to develop a better understanding of both color and form.

With both workshops, Dietlind and I will include mindful movement, a continental breakfast, and a delicious lunch. Our first collaborative workshop last spring filled very quickly and students loved it.

What keeps you motivated in the studio?

Insatiable curiosity. I call it my science lab. I’m fascinated with learning - so being in the studio satisfies that to an extent.

What is your typical studio day like?

I am a full time artist and teacher. I work with scientific communities so paperwork and proposals make up a big part of my week. I paint primarily at night. I have a daughter - so I have to factor in that really important mother/daughter time.

What's next on your horizon?

Just prior to Covid, I began developing the idea of an artist retreat in Greece. I was fortunate enough to be involved with the building of the art studio at the villa in Crete so it was developed with enough power to support an encaustic retreat.

I am excited to share that the first session of Contemporary Encaustic on Crete will be co-taught with Dietlind Vander Schaaf and will take place in late May and early April 2024. The second session will be co-taught with Bettina Egli Sennhauser and will be offered in October of 2024. These bi-annual retreats will offer an even more immersive experience for artists interested in deepening their understanding of color, composition, and surfaces.

Kelly sharing her passion for values and color.

Anything else you’d like our readers to know?

The definition of play is doing something different than what you do on a daily basis for at least twenty minutes without any outcome. I create situations that employ play. I believe that learning is best done with a fun thread pulled through it - that people learn more and better when they are in a loose, receptive state.

All of my workshop experiences are created with this in mind. They are content-driven. Students leave with a ton of technical skill and “aha” moments, but they are delivered with laughter and fun. Plus good snacks!